The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library

Fantagraphics launched the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library with Lost in the Andes in December 2011. Since then, they have released two volumes each year. The volumes in this library are numbered chronologically, but they are being released in a different order. For example, the first volume released, Lost in the Andes, is volume 7. Carl Barks Disney comics were published between 1942 and 1966. When the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library is completed, it will have around 30 volumes. Carl Barks is in the Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, and he is a Disney Legend which makes this library essential reading for Disney Duck Fans as well as all Disney and comic book fans.

Frozen Gold

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 2: Frozen Gold was published by Fantagraphics in November 2024. The comic stories in this volume were originally published in 1943 and 1945.

The top and bottom illustrations on the cover of this book are both from the Frozen Gold story.

This edition of the Carl Barks library is 240 pages, and it includes 18 stories. Comic covers that Carl Barks worked on during this period are also featured in this volume. There is a short biography on Carl Bark’s life as well as behind the scenes pictures and stories about each and every story that is included in this edition. This volume is full of great and interesting information and should be considered a text book of information for fans of Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck. I am glad that it is included in this volume and every volume of the Carl Barks Disney Library.

Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 2 is available in hardcover and KindleComixology versions. A link to buy this book can be found at the end of this review.

Included Stories

There are 18 stories included in this volume:

• Frozen Gold
• The Hard Loser
• Too Many Pets
• Good Neighbors
• Salesman Donald
• Snow Fun
• The Duck in the Iron Pants
• Kite Weather
• Three Dirty Little Ducks
• The Mad Chemist
• Rival Boatmen
• Camera Crazy
• Farragut the Falcon
• The Purloined Putty
• High-Wire Daredevils
• Ten Cents Worth of Trouble
• Donald’s Bay Lot
• Thievery Afoot

In Frozen Gold, Donald trades his house for a plane so that he can fly south with the boys. Donald instead gets volunteered to fly his plane with a life saving delivery of penicillin up north to Alaska. Donald and the boys are seen as heroes for taking the job, but our heroes have a run in with Pete who is after buried gold in the Alaskan hills.

Donald turns out to be The Hard Loser when he is in a cross country anything goes horse race against his nephews. It turns out that the losing horse is the big winner.

Donald decides that his house has Too Many Pets, and he makes the boys get rid of all of their pets. He is not wrong as the house is full of cats, dogs, frogs, turtles, and a bird that makes his house hard to keep clean. Huey, Dewey, and Louie find a new pet in a monkey named Jingo that they purchase from an organ grinder.

Donald and his neighbor, Mr. Jones, decide to be Good Neighbors. This is a solid idea at first, but a football in the wind soon wrecks that peace treaty. Both neighbors are eventually evicted from their houses, and their new houses across town end up being right next door to each other.

Donald wants to prove to his nephews that he can sell anything in Salesman Donald. The boys have to sell a dozen egg beaters to be able to get an express wagon. Donald goes door to door selling the egg beaters, but the last house gives him some trouble.

Donald is out to prove to his nephews that he is a better snow skier than them in Snow Fun.

Donald and the boys have a classic snowball fight in The Duck in the Iron Pants. The nephews use tricks that Donald taught them along with new tricks to stop even a duck wearing an iron knight suit from taking them down.

The boys are flying a kite in lovely Kite Weather. Donald, not being competitive at all, decides that he is going to dress up as a girl and fly his kite higher than his nephews. Once his disguise is found out, Donald teams up with them to take on the other kite competitors of which the Junior Bonfire Girls are favorited. In the end, the large kite that Donald constructs causes him to fly through bushes which shreds his clothes. He has to grab some girl clothes off a clothesline, and Donna Duck officially wins the contest.

Three Dirty Little Ducks vow to never take a bath again. Donald does everything that he can to make sure that they get that bath.

A chemical explosion causes Donald to get a bump on his head in The Mad Chemist. In his mad chemist daze, Donald invents a flammable substance that he calls Duckmite. He uses the Duckmite in a rocket ship to travel around the moon and back. His super chemist powers eventually wears off, and he forgets about Duckmite and his moon trip.

Donald and the boys compete for a millionaire’s business in Rival Boatmen. The millionaire decides to do business with Donald’s nephews which Donald puts and end to with pranks on their boat. Donald and the millionaire go out to sea to fish on Donald’s boat which leads to unfortunate events. Huey, Dewey, and Louie end up having to save Donald.

Donald and the boys go Camera Crazy when the local newspaper offers money for unique pictures. The newspaper favors Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s pictures over Donald’s pictures. Donald even has to stage some of his pictures which leads to the boys getting even better pictures of their uncle in peril.

Donald’s Uncle Eider sends him a surprise crate in the mail that holds Farragut the Falcon. The falcon hunts down and flings onto Donald many different animals. Donald decides to enter the falcon into a Falcon contest.

Donald and Neighbor Jones get into a feud over borrowing a bottle of putty in The Purloined Putty. It seems both neighbors do not want to admit that they borrow items without returning them. The stubborn neighbors both end up stuck as statues head to toe in putty.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie teach themselves to become tight rope walkers in High-Wire Daredevils. Always looking for a way to one up his nephews, Donald decides that he could tight rope across a wire above Niagara Falls.

Donald has a very valuable dime in his coin collection in Ten Cents Worth of Trouble. Dime fetiches must run in the family. The 1870 dime is worth $500, but it gets passed from person to person until it finally gets back in Donald’s possession…then he loses it again.

Donald gets swindled on a beachfront property investment in Donald’s Bay Lot. Anything that could go wrong does go wrong with his beach shack. Donald improves his investment by bringing the beach closer to his shack property by setting off a mine and bringing the bay to his shack.

Donald has a sneaky rat problem in his house in Thievery Afoot. Items go missing with another item getting swapped in its place. The Duck family eventually find the culprit…a rat.

Final Thoughts

It is amazing that even this early into Carl Barks’ comic career that he really does not miss with any of his stories. This volume’s stories were all entertaining. The “Frozen Gold” story felt like it could have been a classic Disney animated short. I learned from reading the behind the scenes Disney Historian section in the back of the book that the plot in this story was originally taken from storyboards that Carl Barks had drawn from an unproduced Mickey Mouse animated short titled “Northwest Mounted“. I love this Carl Barks Complete Disney library because I feel like I am taking a deep class in Disney comic education and these volumes are my fun text books. I am really excited for Carl Barks’ earliest Disney works when volume 1 is released next year.

With most of my early comic Disney comic reviews, the number one question that I get asked is what got edited? The Stories Matter disclaimer is printed after the table of contents that states “This title includes negative depictions and mistreatment of peoples or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it, and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.” I do not own any of the earlier releases of these stories. I cannot 100% say if anything was edited or removed, but I can definitely tell that there are a lot of things in this volume that I believe are edgy for our time that are included in this volume. If you notice anything that was edited, please let me know. There are multiple pages dedicated to restoration notes to the story “Kite Weather“. Originally this story had panels cut and pages condensed from the usually 10 pages to 7. The restoration notes pages go into great detail on what was done to restore this story to 10 pages and includes scans from the original story to show how it was originally printed. I do love that this story was restored for this volume.

The Carl Barks Complete Disney Library is essential reading and studying for all Disney Duck scholars. This year is Donald Duck’s 90th anniversary, and you should definitely digest these stories and experience the great work that Carl Barks created to help propel Donald Duck into the star that we love and celebrate today.

There are a couple of Carl Barks covers in the back of the book to showcase some of the fantastic comic covers that Carl Barks illustrated for the stories in this volume as well as other comic book issues where he worked on the cover.

The behind the scenes content on each story really completes this volume for a comprehensive experience. I can’t wait to read through the rest of the volumes in the Carl Barks Library…especially his earlier works.

As a reminder: It would take a lot of time and money to compile a comic collection that included all of these stories. Anything that takes a lot of time and money would not be approved by Scrooge McDuck.

Thank you to Fantagraphics for allowing us to go through this Disney Duck journey. I feel smarter for increasing my Disney Duck knowledge base by reading this volume.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

You can order the book at the following link:

Order: The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 2: Frozen Gold

The next volume of The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library is also available to Preorder.

Preorder: The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 1: Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold

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